2017–18 UEFA Champions League

Last updated on 26 September 2017

The 2017–18 UEFA Champions League is the 63rd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 26th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

Association team allocation

A total of 79 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which does not organise a domestic league).[2] The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[3]

Associations 1–3 each have four teams qualify.

Associations 4–6 each have three teams qualify.

Associations 7–15 each have two teams qualify.

Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein) each have one team qualify.

The winners of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League and 2016–17 UEFA Europa League are each given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league. Because a maximum of five teams from one association can enter the Champions League, if both the Champions League title holders and the Europa League title holders are from the same top three ranked association and finish outside the top four of their domestic league, the fourth-placed team of their association will be moved to the Europa League.[4] For this season:

Kosovo, who became a UEFA member on 3 May 2016, made their debut in the UEFA Champions League.[5][6]

Association ranking

For the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2016 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2011–12 to 2015–16.[7][8]

Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:

Distribution

In the default access list, the Champions League title holders enter the group stage.[6] However, since Real Madrid already qualified for the group stage (as the champions of the 2016–17 La Liga), the Champions League title holders berth in the group stage is given to the Europa League title holders, Manchester United.[9][10][11]

Teams entering in this round

Teams advancing from previous round

First qualifying round
(10 teams)

10 champions from associations 46–55

Second qualifying round
(34 teams)

29 champions from associations 16–45 (except Liechtenstein)

5 winners from the first qualifying round

Third qualifying round

Champions Route
(20 teams)

3 champions from associations 13–15

17 winners from the second qualifying round

League Route
(10 teams)

9 runners-up from associations 7–15

1 third-placed team from association 6

Play-off round

Champions Route
(10 teams)

10 winners from the third qualifying round (Champions Route)

League Route
(10 teams)

2 third-placed teams from associations 4–5

3 fourth-placed teams from associations 1–3

5 winners from the third qualifying round (League Route)

Group stage
(32 teams)

12 champions from associations 1–12

6 runners-up from associations 1–6

3 third-placed teams from associations 1–3

Europa League title holders

5 winners from the play-off round (Champions Route)

5 winners from the play-off round (League Route)

Knockout phase
(16 teams)

8 group winners from the group stage

8 group runners-up from the group stage

Teams

League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Champions League title holders; EL: Europa League title holders).[12][13]

^France (FRA):AS Monaco is a club based in Monaco (which is not a UEFA member), but participates in the Champions League through one of the berths for France (any coefficient points they earn count towards France's total).

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[6][14][15]

Third qualifying round

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 14 July 2017, 12:00 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[20]

The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: Champions Route (for league champions) and League Route (for league non-champions). The losing teams in both sections entered the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League play-off round.

The first legs were played on 25 and 26 July, and the second legs were played on 1 and 2 August 2017.

Play-off round

The draw for the play-off round was held on 4 August 2017, 12:00 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[21]

The play-off round was split into two separate sections: Champions Route (for league champions) and League Route (for league non-champions). The losing teams in both sections entered the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage.

The first legs were played on 15 and 16 August, and the second legs were played on 22 and 23 August 2017.

Group stage

Location of teams of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage. Brown: Group A; Red: Group B; Orange: Group C; Yellow: Group D; Green: Group E; Blue: Group F; Purple: Group G; Pink: Group H.

The draw for the group stage was held on 24 August 2017, 18:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.[22] The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on the following principles (introduced starting 2015–16 season):[23][24]

Pot 1 contained the title holders and the champions of the top seven associations based on their 2016 UEFA country coefficients.[7][8] As the title holders, Real Madrid, are one of the champions of the top seven associations, the champions of the association ranked eighth are also seeded into Pot 1 (regulations Article 13.05).[3]

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams enter the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League round of 32. The matchdays are 12–13 September, 26–27 September, 17–18 October, 31 October – 1 November, 21–22 November, and 5–6 December 2017.

The youth teams of the clubs that qualify for the group stage also participate in the 2017–18 UEFA Youth League, where they are joined by the youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations.

A total of 17 national associations are represented in the group stage. Qarabağ and RB Leipzig made their debut appearances in the group stage. Qarabağ are the first team from Azerbaijan to play in the Champions League group stage.[25]

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01):[3]

If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;

Knockout phase

In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:

In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners are seeded, and the eight group runners-up are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other.

In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association can be drawn against each other.

Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 will be held on 11 December 2017, 12:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[26]

The first legs will be played on 13, 14, 20 and 21 February, and the second legs will be played on 6, 7, 13 and 14 March 2018.

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals will be held on 16 March 2018, 12:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[27]

The first legs will be played on 3 and 4 April, and the second legs will be played on 10 and 11 April 2018.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals will be held on 13 April 2018, 12:00 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[28]

The first legs will be played on 24 and 25 April, and the second legs will be played on 1 and 2 May 2018.

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